It is sometimes necessary to connect a pair of offshore stations spaced many kilometers apart, to transfer fluid between them. In one example, oil wells are located 30 kilometers apart and oil from the wells must be transferred to a common vessel located in a sea location of a depth of a plurality of hundreds of meters. A turret coupled to the vessel is held in approximate location by catenary chains, and the vessel can weathervane and shift position to a limited extent. A steel pipeline can extend most of the distance along the lo seafloor between stations, but near the vessel other means must be provided to couple the steel pipeline to the vessel turret. Often, a buoy is provided that is anchored to a base at the seafloor, which holds the buoy perhaps 100 meters below the sea surface where it is isolated from most wave action, and a flexible hose extends between the buoy and the turret. The pipeline extends along the seafloor to the base and a vertical pipe extends from the base to the buoy.
While the above system is reliable, it requires fluid connections near the seafloor, where the end of the pipeline connects to the bottom of the vertical pipe that extends up to the buoy. At greater depths it becomes increasingly difficult to send divers to the seafloor to make connections. A fluid connection system for great depths, which avoided the need to make connections at great depths, would be of value.